Learning. Happens. Here.

BYOD

Makerspace for Little or NothingYoudon’t have to spend thousands of dollars to start a Makerspace area.You don’t have to have a designated room or rip out bookcases.

You don’t have to make a Lego wall or buy a 3-D printer!

You can even have a Makerspace on a cart!

When we have testing in our Library, I put all our Makerspace stuff on an AV cart and roll it into our server
room. This post evolved from a previous post called Makerspace Starter Kit Updated on my professional blog where I had some of these idea, but I felt that it deserved it’s own expanded post.

You can take baby steps into the Maker Movement. I’ve been saying that for 7 years or so….long before I blogged about it, I tried it out.

A Makerspace is what you make of it!
Big or small, lavish or little, it’s all about the maker mindset. Constructivism. Be creative! Be crafty! Ask your kids what they want and brainstorm how to bring it to the school! Ask for donations. Ask for help. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect at first or if you fail. Just give it a shot.

Make sure to Tweet, IG out, or add the request to your staff & community newsletter! But be careful, you could get an AVALANCHE of materials!

Then cut them into different lengths, have the kiddos paint them with water based paints and notch them with scissors — then let kids build with them! Store them in milk crates or bins. Voila!

I’ve heard lately, that some people don’t like this idea because they’re concerned about germs. I guess TP rolls & airborne germs? I’m kind of a germophobe, and I didn’t even think about that! Sheesh. How about lightly spraying all the cardboard rolls with Lysol? OR..how about using paper towel rolls cut into different lengths? More! Cardboard Tube STEM Activities and more! This is a Mommy blog that has lots of great STEM ideas! W00t!

Origami is the perfect addition to a Maker program. Gather some origami books (I have like at least 10) paper of all kinds, safety scissors, rulers, and a recycling bin or the scraps and Voila! Kids love folding paper and even though I’m not patient enough to do this myself, many of my kiddos are amazing at Origami!

Cardboard Creature ChallengeNow, shamelessly stolen from my Makerspace Gur, Diana Rendina – Teasing Excerpts from the amazing article she wrote for Demco titled 3 Design Challenges for the Low-tech Makerspace (Link below – I promise! Just don’t want to lose you quite yet, you may never come back!;-)

“The Cardboard Challenge has long been one of my favorite makerspace activities. Inspired by the amazing short film Caine’s Arcade and the Imagination Foundation’s Global Cardboard Challenge (October 6th – Join in!), I create a new variation on this challenge every year. We’ve created cardboard arcades, robots, buildings, etc.” — Read the article for more!

Graphic by @DianaLRendina

Tech Take-Apart Robot ChallengeTech take-apart is a classic makerspace activity. This design challenge
takes it a step further by recycling the technology into a robot made by
students. This project doesn’t have to be super complex — picture a
shoebox painted with black paint that has keyboard keys and circuit
boards glued to it.(link below – I promise!)

Graphic by @DianaLRendina

Recycled Book Art Gallery Our Art Teacher does this and we always love to provide gallery and brainstorming space! Maybe she gets some of our weeded books OR maybe she uses donated books from the kids and

MHMS Upcycled Book Art Gallery Walk from my IG

the community. I can’t speak to that here… my supervisor might see this!

Here’s what Diana has to say about this!

“We all have damaged or out-of-date books that we’ve weeded from our library. Instead of tossing them out, why not transform them into recycled art? Browse Pinterest or check out some of the recommended resources below to gather inspiration for students. Provide students with a variety of arts and crafts supplies, including glue, tape, paint, scissors, glitter, etc. Teach the students about what an artist’s statement is, and have them write one up once their project is done. Then create a gallery of all the students’ projects in the library and invite classes to visit for a gallery walk. This is a great way to introduce students to the world of professional art and a fantastic way to recognize their work. Design prompt: Working alone or in pairs, transform a used book into a work of art. You can use any arts and crafts materials, including paint, scissors, glue, tape, etc. Write an artist’s statement explaining how you came up with your idea and how you created your art. You will have one week to complete the project. All of the book art will be displayed with artists’ statements in a gallery in the library. ”

Don’t forget that video production, animation, green screen, blue screen, TV studio, coding, programming, any collaborating with a Science class can make your school Makerspace program shine! Make sure to bring in other subject areas. Don’t just have a Maker program in the Library, have the Maker mindset all over the school. Work with your Tech Ed teacher, FACS (what was once called Home Economics) and Art teacher. Make your Library a great space to display artwork. I’m a big advocate of STEAM rather than STEM. Think about gallery openings and gallery walks. This gets more people into your space.

Consider creating short videos on Instagram or YouTube having kids talk about their artwork & create a QR code to that post that you print out and put next to the artwork. That way, when people see the display, they can scan and see the video.

Do NOT let the expense, mess, trouble, or obstacles stop you from doing this! Be the innovator and the spark in your school or district. You got this! I know you can be AWESOME!

Honestly,
this last part was in a previous blog called Makersapce Starter Kit Updated but in case you missed it, I think this part is an important part of the conversation for any Maker project.

We’ve discovered that the mix of the digital divide, possible turbulent home lives, and general teenage forgetfulness can result in a loss of power. So, for vaious reasons it seems that some of my students who DO have devices (yes, there are still a lot who do NOT) show up to school with a low or no charge. Yes, they sometimes admit that they fall asleep with their phone next to them and not plugged in. Shocker.

A device that they LOVE to use for social connections and fun in the hallways and during free time. Oh yeah, and sometimes in class for learning, too! Without that device they feel a serious gap in their daily lives.

We Fill That Gap!

We want the kids to feel like the Library Media Center – Learning Commons and Makerspace Station – is a safe place to land and the place to go when they need things. Like finishing and priting out homework, relaxing and making something at our Makerspace Station, practicing mindfulness with our Coloring Zen area, or borrowing a charger to power up their devices. This is our third try with this concept, the first two were failures – if you interested you can read about this journey going back four years on my professional blog. So far, this is going GREAT!

Backstory: A few years ago, I was inspiredby the charging lockers I saw during a visit to theHillwood High School Library in Nashvillewith the ISTE Board of Directors and I wanted to support our BYOD pilot program and our kiddos by giving them a place to recharge their devices in school.

And of course that place was going to be our school Library Media Center — shameless how we will do just about ANYthing to get kiddos to visit our Library!

Because I think we’ve now hit on a really easy, relatively low cost, & popular way to give my kids the power they crave and need.

Approximate cost for 8 chargers & 10 cords = $130 bucks

Piece of mind not worrying that kiddos will have their devices stolen or locked out on your watch?

Priceless!

Procedure:

• Kids (and staff) can request a charging device, first come, first serve anytime before 2pm. I also bought 2 flat chargers for staff to borrow. Kids come first. Always.

• We keep the chargers tucked away on a shelf behind the Circulation Desk.

• Kids must first show that their phone has less than 30% charge to get one. (We found at first some kids just wanted it for the cool factor – which was cool, but not cool for the kids who really NEEDED them!)

• We don’t lend them out for the charging of fancy headphones – these are for devices that could possibly be used in the classroom.

• Kids can borrow the charger alone or with a multi-device cord. They must initial to agree to pay for the loss or damage of the device & cord (Yeah, we know this isn’t really enforceable)

•We ask that kids agree not to let the device out of their sight – if they’re asked to share it – we trust them to keep track of it.

•We also ask that kids bring back the device at the end of the day. Do they always remember? Nope! That’s why we collect their last period class teacher (I, or my amazing Media assistant Kathi Bell, calls classrooms at the end of the day to get them back – or we track them down the first period of the next day.

Yeah, We’re Popular!

Some days we’re cleaned out of chargers within the first 5 minutes of school. I’m making a sign for our front door that says “Yes, We Have Awesome Chargers to Borrow!” or “Sorry, All Chargers Have Been Borrowed” withBitmoji cartoons.

• This is a complimentary service. We also reserve the right to not lend out a charger on an early dismissal day, after 1:30pm, or to a kiddo who has proven to be unreliable with the charger in the past. But that hasn’t happened yet. Frankly, I doubt it ever will. Don’t tell my students, for all my fierceness [snaps Z formation] I’m kind of a soft touch. But I gotta keep that leverage because we want to keep these chargers nice for everyone. So far though, the kids have been super fantastic and very enthusiastic about this new FREE perk we’re providing to them!

GOAL #1 MHMS provides a safe and nurturing school environment that respects our diversity and commonality.

Why do we do this?

You never know what kinds of things kids are struggling with at home. What if a kid doesn’t have a computer at home and just a mobile device and needs to do homework? This is important! We can help fill the gaps that the world & circumstance gives to these kiddos.

My kids tell me you can get these chargers at Five Below. I haven’t tried them yet. If we lose a lot over the year, I might give them a whirl. The multi device cords are CHEAP! Meaning, inexpensive to pick up (via Amazon) but they can sometimes stop working and can break. So far, so good, though and this has been a LOT less of a headache than those fancy expensive charging lockers.

This great idea was inspired by the amazing Teacher Librarian at Wilde Lake Middle School – Sarah Russo!

I should have started with that! [smacks forehead] but I wanted to give how we run this first.

Are you a Teacher Librarian, or educator and want to hear what problems we encountered with our previous attempts at charging stations and charging lockers?

Because, NO ONE wants to be responsible for a kids only device but it’s AWESOME to be responsible to give POWER to a kid and their beloved device!

Your turn!

What am I missing here? Any other suggestions? Successes? Do you like that we help out the kiddos? What other things could we add to our School Library to make it a more appealing place (Other than a Keurig -that would be boss!) Please hit me up in the comments and share your thoughts! Thank you for reading!

Buying information. If you want to get one of these for yourself or for your kiddo, check Amazon! So far, they’ve been great & I did have 2 die on my (after being used by kids…a LOT) but the company is sending me 2 replacements! I couldn’t ask for better customer service than that!